People are going to frame this in some Gestapo light, like Obama’s secret police didn’t like him saying he didn’t vote for Obama (part of the lyrics) and talking about the shitty things the government does. But the other side is that he was booked to perform a job, presumably for a hefty chunk of cash, and didn’t deliver.

According to reddit user ieieieieieieieieie (I had to copy and paste to get the right amount of ie’s), “his DJs played all of the instrumentals that he was supposed to rap over, but over each song, he just rapped the first verse from Words I Never Said.”

Here are the lyrics he repeated, over and over, for a half hour:

I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullshit
just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets
How much money does it take to really make a full clip
9/11 building 7 did they really pull it?
Uhh, and a bunch of other cover ups
Your child’s future was the first to go with budget cuts
If you think that hurts then wait here comes the uppercut
The school was garbage in the first place, that’s on the up and up
Keep you at the bottom but tease you with the upper crust
You get it, then they move it so you never keeping up enough
If you turn on TV all you see’s a bunch of what the fucks
Dude is dating so and so blabbering bout such and such
And that ain’t Jersey Shore homie that’s the news
And these the same people that supposed to be telling us the truth
Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist
Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit
That’s why I ain’t vote for him, next one either
I’m a part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful
And I believe in the people

Sums up my thoughts pretty well, I’ve never heard the song but I like those lyrics.

Anyway, I have two conflicting viewpoints battling for supremacy in my head. One side of my brain says Lupe is an asshole and should have just done a couple songs that he was most likely being paid a stupid amount of money to perform. Shit, write five new songs kicking the shit out of Obama. If the crowd’s moving, no one would have said shit. That side of me says he’s a douchebag.

The other side says good for him, it was an interesting little form of protest. The crowd still seemed to be with him, and the club overreacted. Maybe he changed a few minds.

In any case, it’s a semi-interesting story that’ll only be good for Lupe’s publicity. The kind of people who side with that second opinion my brain holds who run across this story, never having heard of Lupe Fiasco, will give him a listen now, or at least proclaim on their blogs and on twitter that “this guy has balls” (I don’t agree, it’s not like he was facing death or even prison, just not getting paid) and that they’re now fans.